There’s a lovely row of young evergreens along the gravel road leading to Wright Park. They were clearly planted with purpose and care and have done a beautiful job masking the construction staging area behind it and doing all the other amazing things trees can do.

But this week when I walked down that road I noticed that they have all been violently and carelessly cut. Some heavy machinery clearly went through there to clear the brush alongside the road and to cut back any intruding tree limbs. I understand the reasons for keeping the road clear and passable, but the way these trees were cut ensures that all of them will suffer and many of them will die. Every pruning book tells you to leave a clean cut lest you make an opening for pests and disease, and yet each of these trees now has dozens of open wounds and some have gashes in their trunks that are oozing sap just when they should be storing it for winter.

This town cares about trees. There was just a big initiative to plant trees along Seymour Street to make up for some that were lost by the new rail construction. I got one myself, and I even got a nice green watering bag to help it along during its first couple of years. This was a great expense and one that took a lot of coordination and effort, just as it would take expense and effort to prune the evergreens along the road to Wright Park the right way.

But it doesn’t make any sense to plant trees, let them grow for a few years, and then tear them to shreds.

It’s also just sickening to see the roughly torn branches, splintered and bleeding sap. You don’t have to know anything about trees to know it’s wrong. Can we please slow down and take better care of the trees that take care of us?

Carolyn Kuebler

Middlebury